Food labels are designed to list their ingredients in the order of the highest amount used within that food. If “Sugar” is the first ingredient listed, then sugar makes up the highest single percentage of any ingredient.
Be aware of products that use multiple ingredients that do the same function, such as foods that will list “high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, sorbitol, and sucrose” all within the same label. These are all sugars and we must take all of them into account.
General Rule of Thumb: Eat as natural as possible. Organic is Best.
- If you can’t find the ingredients listed on your food sold individually within a grocery store, or if you can’t even pronounce some of the ingredients, they are most likely chemical additives from unknown sources. Our bodies can deal with a certain amount, but too many of these over a long period of time can cause serious problems.
- Food should be somewhat similar to its original form in order for our bodies to get the most benefit from them. The further it gets processed,the further it gets stripped of what made it nutritious. Since we don’t find Butterfingers growing on trees, we probably shouldn’t eat them.
- Organic foods are grown without chemical pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers. Those chemicals leach into our food and little by little add up to a big effect on our health.
Sweeteners:
Avoid:
- Anything that lists a sweetener as one of the first few ingredients.
- Many Foods have sweeteners added to them to increase your psychological desire for them, making you eat more than you should. Find a version of the same food, only without the sweeteners.
- Fructose (especially High Fructose Corn Syrup) Sucrose, Maltose,Dextrose – anything with -ose at the end of the word.
- Sugar and sugar substitutes such as NutraSweet, Amino-Sweet, Splenda, Aspartame, Sorbitol, and many more.